Baltimore disaster highlights years of neglect of US bridges

● Almost 43,000 American bridges are in poor condition — yet they carry about 167m vehicles a day

After a year-long closure, a bridge over the Puyallup River reopened in 2019 with a sturdy new span and a brand new name. It even won a national award.

But today, the Fishing Wars Memorial Bridge is closed again after federal officials raised concerns about a vintage section of the nearly century-old bridge that carried about 15,000 vehicles a day.

It has no timetable to reopen because the city of Tacoma, Washington, first must raise millions of dollars to clean and inspect it.

Bridges fulfil a vital function that often goes overlooked — until lives are lost or disrupted by a closure or collapse, like that of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early on Tuesday. That bridge crumpled when struck by a cargo ship, not because of poor maintenance. But thousands of other US bridges are in worse shape.

It is estimated that 42,400 US bridges are in poor condition — yet they carry about 167m vehicles each day, according to US government figures. Four-fifths of them have problems with the legs holding them up or the arms supporting their load. And more than 15,800 of those bridges were already in poor shape a decade ago.

One of those persistently poor bridges — carrying about 96,000 westbound vehicles daily on Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River in Rhode Island state — was suddenly shut to traffic late last year, resulting in long delays as drivers diverted to new routes. In March, the Rhode Island governor announced that the bridge must be demolished and replaced, at a cost of up to $300m (€277m). Construction would take at least two years to complete.

This illustrate a nationwide issue. “We have not maintained our infrastructure at the rate that we should for many years — and now we’re playing catch-up,” said Marsia Geldert-Murphey, of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

When an old bridge gets closed because of safety concerns, it disrupts daily commutes, business supply chains and emergency response times by police, firefighters and medical personnel. Yet many bridges still await replacement or repairs because the costs can reach millions or even billions of dollars.

A massive infrastructure law signed by Joe Biden in 2021 directed $40bn to bridges over five years — the largest dedicated bridge investment since construction of the interstate highway system began nearly 70 years ago.

But funding from the infrastructure law will make only a dent in an estimated $319bn of needed bridge repairs nationwide, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

Bridges are rated “good”, “fair” or “poor”, with the “poor” bridges on average 70 years old. Even before the federal funding infusion, the number of bridges in poor condition declined 22pc over the past decade as structures were repaired, replaced or permanently closed. But in recent years, more bridges also slipped from good to fair condition.

Though rare, bad bridges can eventually collapse.

Design flaws contributed to the evening rush hour collapse of an Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in 2007. The collapse killed 13 people and injured 145 others.

It also was costly financially. Analysis estimated Minnesota’s economy lost $60m in 2007-2008 due to increased travel time and operating costs for commuters and businesses.

In January 2022, a bridge carrying a bus and several cars collapsed over Fern Hollow Creek in Pittsburgh, causing injuries but no deaths.

Federal investigators determined the steel legs of the bridge had corroded to the point of having visible holes — yet inspectors failed to calculate the severity of the problem and the city failed to follow repeated recommendations.

“It’s not something we can just fund in a year and say: ‘Here we go, let’s do it quick,’” said Joseph McHugh, an engineer with 40 years of experience in bridge construction. “It takes years of planning, and years of working through dedicated funding.

“This failure didn’t occur overnight. It should have been caught by an inspection, not by a contractor or whoever was looking at what was going on.”

Bridges carry out a vital function that is often overlooked — until they shut down or collapse